Method and a device for separating a continuous fluid phase from a dispersed phase

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention concerns a method for separating a continuous phase from at least one dispersed phase with each phase having a different density.
This method is characterized in that the mixture of the phases and to be separated is supplied into a device formed by at least one approximately cylindrically-shaped chamber and at least one hellically-shaped internal piece whose at least one face having one helicoidal surface, the piece delimiting at least one helicoidal passage.
The internal piece is adapted in such a way so that the maximum path of one particle of the dispersed phase along the radial direction before colliding is less than one quarter of the peripheral diameter of the internal piece.
The helicoidal surface has, as a projection on a phase perpendicular to the axis of the chamber, a surface equal to at least half the total internal right section of the cylindrical chamber.
In addition, the method of the invention is characterized in that the flow of the mixture of the phases and along the passage provokes a rotation movement around the axis of the chamber, resulting in the lighter phase moving towards the axis and the heavier phase towards the periphery of the chamber during which the dispersed phase coalesces, at least partially on the walls of the passage, and then forms a continuous phase separated from the continuous phase by an interface, the lighter and heavier phases being bled on both sides of the interface.
The invention also concerns a device for separating a continuous phase from at least one dispersed phase, each phase having a different density, and comprising a cylindrical or substantially cylindrical chamber.
This device is characterized in that it comprises at least one helicoidal internal piece with at least one face having a helicoidal surface and which partly delimits a helicoidal passage.
The internal piece is adapted so that the maximum distance of the path of a particle of the dispersed phase along the radial direction before colliding is less than one quarter of the peripheral diameter of the internal piece